Welcoming Wednesday

It's Wednesday, and that means it is time to welcome our new followers. Today we welcome Cristina Piras, aka Cristina Violet, who authors the blog Violet Paint at http://violetpaint.blogspot.it/. Looks like she mostly paints GW minis herself, with a smattering of other manufacturers and card art! Very exciting to have you aboard, Cristina.
Also I had some great news today. Over on Facebook, the folks at Dirigible Days, a steampunk Web series you can find on YouTube -- strike that, you SHOULD seek it out -- chose to share "Dispatches from the Rim" with their readers! I found Dirigible Days largely because author, bon vivant and raconteur G.D. Falksen is part of the cast. I'm so glad that I did, and soon you other steampunk fans will be, too!
I promise I'll have some more new content for you by Monday, faithful readers. See you then!

It must be mine

Saw this on the Carnevale Facebook page. I must have it for my all-alligator (and crocodile) Army of the Abandoned (which is a Lycaon list) for Empire of the Dead. Adds some interesting story options for me, too.

Who would do the mechanical upkeep on such a beast among my ragtag collection of freed Moreau experiments? Obviously they're making allies among other factions, but who? Perhaps a doctor among the yet-unseen faction I'm hoping for, the Cirque du Noir?

Welcoming Wednesday (on Friday!)

I missed Welcome Wednesday this week because of a combination of illness and a power outage. A tree fell by our apartment during a bad storm and ripped down the power lines, which are being restored today.

So my apologies for this belated entry. But a warm "Dispatches" welcome nonetheless to two new followers of the blog:

• The first is Counterfett, scribe of more blogs than I've had hot dinners. They include the blog I know him from, All Things Fett, the adorable and festive 364 Days of Santa, and a bevy of duplicate Halo blogs: The Halo Guide, Halo Inc., Cortana's Corner, Halo Toys, The Master Chief Blog, Halo Releases, ONI Alpha Site, Halo 4 Toys, Halo News, The Halo Zone, Halo Toy Previews, The Halo Toy Blog and Halo Info Zone.
• Jonathan Clements is the newest reader to join the site. Blogger won't show me if Jonathan maintains a blog himself, but the list of blogs he's joined overlaps with my own a great deal. Jonathan, if you see this and I've missed out a blog of yours, leave me a comment and I'll be happy to correct the post.

So welcome aboard, you two, and thank you for your time and attention. I hope all is well with all my readers. Happy gaming!

An in-boxing then, not an un-boxing

I promised an unboxing for "Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster," but there are so many of them out there right now I don't want to burden the Interwebz with another one that won't really add anything to the conversation. But there are some issues I can address.

First of all, packaging: This thing is huge!

And deep, too. This isn't a game to put on your bookshelf. It's a game to make a bookshelf out of. I may use the box this came in to add a room on to our apartment. It's big. B-I-G.

My meaty hand rests on the giant game box.

This is how thick the box is. Alternate use --
keep your trailer level.

Those of you who are members of the Miniature Addicts Anonymous on Facebook have already heard me talk about this, but I had a surge of disappointment because my Biohazard set of extras did not include the special edition resin Lt. Kara. I did, however, get two of the Mike McVey signed print of the cover art.

This is the Studio McVey painted version of the special edition
Lt. Kara from the Kickstarter website.

My second piece of signed art. I offered to send it back,
but CMON told me I could keep it. Hmmm, eBay maybe?

Now I'm nothing if not a whiny, entitled, overprivileged manchild, and that kind of mispack can just suck the joy out of a much-anticipated delivery. Two quick emails, one to Cool Mini or Not and one a message through the Kickstarter system itself, outlined my problem to them.

I seriously did not expect an immediate response, given that they're in the early days of shipping out the game. CMON's customer service sent an automatic reply acknowledging my issue, and I swear before I finished READING that email, I had a personal response from Ginger at CMON. She promised they'd ship it out as soon as possible, most likely the next day, and send me a tracking number. This was midafternoon on Tuesday, the 15th. On Thursday I got an email with the tracking number from Ginger, saying it had been sent out the previous day, AND I got a message through Kickstarter wanting to make sure CMON customer service was handling the issue to my satisfaction.

Here's the extra-special version of Lt. Kara herself, what Mike called in the Kickstarter
Updates "Tech-comm Lt. Kara Black." They've done special rules for her, in a pdf.
 Hard-card to follow in later release, I believe. Download her stats at alt-Kara stats

The package arrived Friday morning, less than 48 hours after I'd reported the issue. (It helps that I only live a few hours from CMON Central, I suppose.) But they were exemplary in fixing a problem that was, to me, serious. I told them Ginger deserves a raise.

CMON has always done right by me. This is the third Kickstarter they've been involved in that I've supported, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Welcoming Wednesday!

Welcome aboard, JP! He maintains blogs at Herefordshire 1938 and  A Very British Civil War Miniatures Guide. According to his blogger profile, JP, or jp1885 as he is also known, is an "occasional wargamer, figure painter and amateur writer."

Thanks for joining in, JP. We look forward to many fine adventures in the future (and in the past, and in the alternate past)!

Sedition War is in!

Just as it says on the tin, I received my shipment of "Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster" today! I'll take some unboxing photos later today for a post tonight. Eager to dig in ...

Welcoming Wednesday

New followers to welcome! So exciting, a little bit like Christmas. Although I don't get followers at Christmas. I guess Jesus does. Whatever.

Joining us are the following:

Joe Kushner of Appendix N
Ian "Hendybadger" Henderson of Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher
PMMDJ of Metal Skirmish

I also have it on good authority that mathyoo of 28 Millimeters Later is a reader, based on our delightful conversations on Facebook, but he's having browser trouble that hasn't allowed him to sign up as a follower, for some reason. So welcome mathyoo as well!

EDIT: OK, I see mathyoo listed now. He got bumped to another page, and maybe I needed to have him as a G+ friend for him to show up. Not the smoothest of integrations across all apps, Google.

I'm going to welcome new followers each Wednesday, because I think the alliteration of "Welcoming Wednesday" will help me to remember to do it, plus, like a toddler, I need structure.

Thanks to ALL my readers, whether you sign on as a follower or not! (Although I wish you would ...) Happy Wednesday!